Leominster American in good hands

LEOMINSTER -- The Leominster American 10-year-old Jimmy Fund team is lucky to have good pitching.

Jimmy Fund Baseball

That solid pitching was on display Wednesday night, as starter Mike Anderson fired 3 1-3 innings and Tony Salvatelli worked 1 2-3 innings of relief to propel American to an 11-7 Jimmy Fund Open Division victory over North Leominster at Justin DeSantis Field.

"Anderson came out and pitched great for three-plus innings," American manager Greg Carr said. "(Salvatelli) came in and closed. He's been tough to hit all season.

"We're just happy to walk away with a win."

North Leominster (2-4) fell behind 4-0 in the first inning and 6-1 after three complete, but made a game of it by scoring one run in the fourth and five in the fifth after American scored five times in the top of the inning.

"We hit but we didn't hit in key situations," said North manager Keith LeBlanc, whose team left the bases loaded in the first, third and fifth innings. "When you fall behind that far, it's hard to catch up but they didn't give up."

Down 11-2, North Leominster stormed back. Joe LeBlanc led off the fifth inning with a double to right-center and Pat LeBlanc walked. Nolan Bush scored Joe LeBlanc with a single to right, and two more runs came in on an infield miscue.

"The first four innings we were making the plays and that fifth inning we got rattled and threw the ball around and a couple runs scored," Carr said.

Later in the inning, Alex Watari walked with the bases loaded, cutting the deficit to 11-7.

Advertisement

Salvatelli came on in relief of Adam Sears late in the fifth and got two strikeouts, and fanned three in the sixth to earn the save.

American (3-3) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. Nick Sousa's lined-rive RBI single to center and Anderson's RBI double highlighted the frame. A.J. Mills and Thomas Rupp each added singles in the inning.

Mills made a tremendous diving catch in center to rob Pat LeBlanc of a base hit, and snagged Bush's fly ball immediately after.

"We made all the plays behind (Anderson) in the first inning," Carr said. "A.J. Mills made two great plays in center field."

North trailed 6-0 in the third, but the hosts got on the board as Pat LeBlanc was hit by a pitch and scored on Bush's (2 for 4, 2 RBIs) booming RBI double into the left-center gap.

"Nolan's good," the North Leominster manager said. "He's going to be in the majors next year."

In the fifth, American capitalized on three North errors and four walks to plate five runs. Ashton Molzhan had the only hit of the inning - an RBI single. He paced the American attack with two hits on the evening.

"A few errors here and there, but that's what the game is," Keith LeBlanc said.

North did, however, flash the leather around, too. Catcher Joe LeBlanc gunned out a runner trying to steal second in the third inning, and also ended the fourth with a diving catch on a pop up in front of home plate.

"Joe's been good back there," Keith LeBlanc said.

Eric McGrath made a snow-cone catch at third base, and Martinez snatched a hot shot off the bat of Dylan Carr from the mound and threw to first for the final out of the sixth.

American's Salvatelli turned in a highlight-reel play himself by hauling in a high pop-up while falling backward from his shortstop position in the fourth.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sentinel and Enterprise. So keep it civil.